HB4749

HB4749 lets a county with fewer than 1,000 residents draw eligible jurors from a neighboring county in the same judicial district. Signed June 20, 2025, it took effect September 1, 2025. Under the general statutory definition, population means the most recent federal decennial census, not a daily estimate.

The law covers both grand juries, which consider criminal accusations, and petit juries, which hear trials. A person from the qualifying neighboring county is not excluded simply for living and being qualified to vote there instead of in the summoning county. Other qualifications remain; the law does not allow noncitizens, underage people or otherwise disqualified people to serve.

For grand juries, the new provision authorizes random selection from a fair cross section of the qualifying neighboring population, with valid Texas driver’s-license or DPS identification and specified eligibility screening. For trial juries, the county may supplement its normal jury-wheel sources—the list from which prospective jurors are drawn—with neighboring-county voter lists and specified qualifying license/ID holders. Exempt-person registers and the voter suspense-list exclusion remain relevant. The Secretary of State’s legislative summary describes this source-list expansion; the final statute controls its details.

A district judge whose jurisdiction includes either a county served by at least nine district courts or a county below 1,000 population may direct the specified clerks, sheriffs or jury-room bailiffs to summon prospective jurors. This adds the small-county situation to the prior large-court-system authorization.

The new qualification rules apply to people summoned on or after September 1, 2025. People summoned earlier remain governed by the earlier qualification law. The act does not require every eligible small county to use outside-county jurors or move the trial itself to another county.